Berea- A developer is about to build upscale houses less than two miles from the runways at Cleveland's airport in an area where the noise from overhead jets could be as loud as a food blender in your kitchen.

Tens of thousands of planes a year, sometimes dozens a day, will buzz over the 614 houses planned for an area near Nobottom and Lewis roads, where existing homes qualify for government-paid soundproofing.

But Cleveland Hopkins International Airport officials, who warned the developer about the noise, say buyers will get no such government help in soundproofing their new houses, which are priced between $179,000 and $275,000.

"I think that's a strange place to put a new development," said airport watchdog Marv Hirschberg, of neighboring Olmsted Falls.

"They must have gotten a good deal on the land."

In a letter to the city last year, Cleveland Port Control Director John Mok pointed out that the airport has demolished homes in areas with noise levels slightly above levels in the new development.

And at a public meeting last year, Hopkins Deputy Director Chris Nielson warned both the city and the developer that "aircraft may fly as low as 500 feet above these proposed homes."

Despite the warnings, developers are pushing ahead, installing sewers and streets for the project known as Sandstone Ridge.

"We can't stop private enterprise from doing what it feels it needs to do," Mok said in an interview last week. "We can only hope there's full disclosure."

The builder, Ryan Homes, has already sold seven houses, according to a chart inside a field office at the site. Project officials did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

City Engineer Al Troietto said Ryan Homes intends to soundproof Sandstone Ridge houses according to federal specifications. He said the city has hired an architect to monitor the soundproofing.

But the city will not notify prospective buyers about the noise, said Berea Mayor Joe Biddlecombe, a supporter of the development.

"It's [Ryan Homes'] responsibility to notify these people that there are planes in the area," said Biddlecombe, adding that Hopkins traffic is not as heavy or loud as it used to be.

Air traffic fell sharply in 2001 because of the poor economy and the Sept. 11 attacks. But business is rebounding, and Continental Airlines, which operates a hub at Hopkins, is announcing new flights every couple of weeks.

New and quieter aircraft that can climb quickly and turn away from neighborhoods have reduced the noise around Hopkins in recent years, but planes still can be loud when landing because they come in slower and at lower altitudes.

Because of wind, most of the 100,000 planes that land at Hopkins each year approach from the northeast, making the most noise over Interstate 480 and a few industrial areas in Cleveland.

But over a year, about 30,000 of those planes arrive from the southwest, traversing paths directly above and slightly northwest of the new subdivision, according to Hopkins noise studies.

Mary Vedda, who lives on Nobottom Road across the street from an entrance to Sandstone Ridge, said jets come in so low that ice from the wings pelts her horse farm.

"I've heard it tinging off the barn roof," she said.

The low-flying aircraft have long been on the radar screens of local governments close to the airport.

Berea, Middleburg Heights and Strongsville have formed a coalition and have hired an aviation consultant to limit noise from the expansion of the airport.

Despite their concerns with noise, Berea officials pushed their city closer to the airport by annexing meadows and farmland from Olmsted Township. That land is now the home of Sandstone Ridge.

Mayor Biddlecombe said Berea is built up and losing population. The new development, he said, is the only opportunity to offer attractive, upscale housing - townhouses and single-family and cluster homes - to stem the loss.

Cleveland, which owns Hopkins, has discouraged residential construction in areas near the airport. As far back as 1987, airport officials called for zoning restrictions and real estate disclosure laws in communities surrounding the airport.

Neither Berea nor Cleveland has adopted noise-level disclosure laws.

"You hope the seller would make people aware," said Hirschberg, the airport watchdog.